By Myrna M. Velasco Oil firms will cut fuel prices for the second consecutive week as global crude costs continue to decline. Both  Petron Corp. and Phoenix Petroleum Philippines announced yesterday that they will implement another rollback for the price of gasoline, diesel and kerosene over the weekend. Effective 6 a.m. today, Petron has reduced the price of diesel by P1.25 per liter, P1.05 per liter for gasoline, and P1.20 per liter for kerosene. Ahead of Petron, Phoenix Petroleum already reduced its pump prices Saturday morning. For diesel, the oil firm cut its price by P1.30 per liter and P1.15 per liter for gasoline products. According to Petron, this week’s price scaling down had been intended “to reflect movements in the international market.” Prior to this week’s pump cost rollbacks, the price range of diesel in various gasoline stations had been at around P36.90 to P42.89 per liter or at an average of P41.40 per liter. For gasoline, the cost per liter ranged between P46.75 and P57.77 or at an average of P52.92; and kerosene at P43.02 to P52.76 per liter or around P47.75 per liter, data from the Department of Energy (DOE) showed. As of this writing, the other oil companies are still weighing price movement prospects – whether to follow the lead set by Phoenix Petroleum or wait for their usual Tuesday habit of cost adjustments. This is already the second week that fuel prices had been reduced by more-than-P1.00 per liter scale, a respite from the six-time increases experienced by consumers in January until the first week of February. For the government that had gone fidgety on inflationary pressure of rising petroleum prices in the past month, the series of price downtrends would definitely be coming as a relief not just to consumers but to the market and the country’s fiscal state in general, according to industry players. On a global scale, it was noted in the past trading weeks that there had been a hike in the deployment of oil rigs and a reported increase in crude inventory of the United States, hence, easing prices in the world market. The decrease in prices had been making its way into the market despite the continued firm adherence of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia on their production cut target of 1.8 million barrels per day until the end of 2018. This week’s fuel cost reductions in the Philippines also happened amid the unprecedented climb of the US dollar’s value to P52, one of the factors that have been impacting on domestic pump prices.